I am Joe's friggin' huge stomach

April 27, 2007 3:36 PM

How can those skinny Japanse eaters like "Gal" Sone and Nobuyuki Shirota down so much food? CT scans show stomachs which expand to freakishly huge proportions.
posted by jaimev (18 comments total)

I need a laxative just to think about this.
posted by dhartung at 3:39 PM on April 27, 2007

Wow, I was talking about this yesterday!
posted by tomble at 3:59 PM on April 27, 2007

It's not just expandable stomach capacity. A MTV True Life episode documented that Kobayashi has a condition where his stomach sits far lower in his abdomen than normal. That puts it well out of range of his rib cage and liver which impose limits on how much the stomach could expand.
posted by junesix at 4:06 PM on April 27, 2007

Is it weird that the first video gave me half-a-boner?
posted by bardic at 4:07 PM on April 27, 2007

You know, I made the mistake of following a link from cruel.com years ago which showed a thin and otherwise attractive young woman whose specialty was shatting enormous piles of dung (why anyone would want her to do this wasn't revealed). We're literally talking about cubic feet here. I found it repellent but fascinating from a "what the hell do her insides look like?" standpoint.

Sadly, I now have a glimmer of an answer.
posted by maxwelton at 4:09 PM on April 27, 2007

They also have an edge over obese contestants, whose weight stops their stomachs from expanding that far.
posted by Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson at 4:09 PM on April 27, 2007

I think the real mystery is how they eat so much while staying so thin. America wants to know!
posted by Anonymous at 4:20 PM on April 27, 2007

So how do these two compare to Kobayashi, Joey Chestnut, Sonya Thomas or some of the other well known competitive eaters in America?
posted by puke & cry at 4:25 PM on April 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Hmm, maybe that's what Jughead has.
posted by divabat at 5:55 PM on April 27, 2007

No, Jughead was just stoned as fuck.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:55 PM on April 27, 2007

Gal Some is pretty mint, probably an expensive date though.
posted by Count at 8:01 PM on April 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

You know, I made the mistake of following a link from cruel.com years ago which showed a thin and otherwise attractive young woman whose specialty was shatting enormous piles of dung (why anyone would want her to do this wasn't revealed). We're literally talking about cubic feet here. I found it repellent but fascinating from a "what the hell do her insides look like?" standpoint.

link plz
posted by Falconetti at 8:37 PM on April 27, 2007

Ah yes, the "Belt of Fat" theory in action. Good to see scientific evidence inaction.
posted by now i'm piste at 8:45 PM on April 27, 2007

Would make for super belching ability.
posted by Tesladownunder at 8:58 PM on April 27, 2007

You can't talk about the amazing skinny eaters without mentioning petite 105 pound Sonya Thomas, otherwise known as the Black Widow

and, of course, the six time Nathan's Coney Island hot dog-eating champion, . Takeru Kobayashi.

He wins quite a few contests around the world every year.

He used to be 111 pounds, but he has gained weight to 150 pounds (gasp!), give or take a few (especially when he's in a contest).


The first time I heard about skinny people winning eating contests was a rerun of an old show from my father's era called Seargent Bilko, where he tried to bet against a skinny guy who turned out to be named Mouth Mulligan.
posted by eye of newt at 12:55 AM on April 28, 2007

I think the real mystery is how they eat so much while staying so thin. America wants to know!

No, America doesn't want to know, because the answer is so hideously repulsive. From wikipedia:

By training with weights and working out, Kobayashi has increased his metabolism, which in turn has helped him to burn more calories. This training is used by Kobayashi to maintain his overall health as well as helping him to elude excess calories from being stored as fat.

Exercise!? How revolting and mysterious.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:48 AM on April 28, 2007

In high school we had eating competetions but we did ours with popscicles. Not only do you have to eat really fast but you had to endure the painful brain freeze, I don't recommend this to the faint of heart.
posted by BrnP84 at 2:08 PM on April 28, 2007

In high school we had eating competetions but we did ours with popscicles.

You can do the same with frozen margaritas, you know, if you're into that sort of thing.
posted by milovoo at 2:50 PM on April 29, 2007